Kristen & John - Overhills Mansion Wedding Photography

I think it was last November or December when Kristen and her mom contacted me about shooting Kristen's May wedding. I remember it quite clearly because it was one of the first meetings I had after deciding to actually put some money into advertising and marketing my business. Up until that point, I was relying on word of mouth (a great technique, but not so effective when you have just moved to a new city). They commented repeatedly about the impression my photos left, saying how striking and different they were from everyone else's. I can't tell you how encouraging that was! As a photographer, I constantly struggle with questioning my own abilities as they stack up against others. And it's always been my goal to strive for a little uniqueness in my photos, so it was definitely a well-placed comment at a much-needed time for me. Kristen and her mother earned a special place in my heart after that meeting, so by the time the wedding rolled around, I was pretty excited!

Also, a big thanks to Odil Ruzaliev for helping me out as a second photographer. He was so generous with his time and I'm super impressed with the images he got!

It's hard to tell the story of a wedding day in ten photos, but here ya go:

Monica and Marcus - Engagement

I met Monica and Marcus in Baltimore's Inner Harbor for their engagement session on what was probably the windiest day of the year! Fortunately, they were both great sports and didn't complain at all. It often took waiting a few minutes for the wind to die down before I could grab the shot I wanted, but all in all, I think things worked out pretty well!

I especially enjoyed this session because Monica and Marcus are fellow Texans! (I don't know that's proper terminology for me anymore since I haven't lived there in five years, but I think I'll always feel a kinship with Texas.) They are both from Dallas, and even brought along their Cowboys jerseys for a few photos.

To see more photos from the session, visit my flickr page.

Anna & David - Brookside Gardens Wedding Photography

I absolutely loved this session! Anna and David were so great to work with, and totally up for whatever I suggested. I was introduced to them back in January, when I met David's brother and fiance to talk about their upcoming May wedding. Although the brother and fiance didn't end up booking me, Anna and David did. The unique part? They're already married! The biggest regret from their wedding day three years ago was not paying a professional photographer to take pictures. So we picked a date, they put their wedding clothes back on, and we went to Brookside Gardens for some nice post-wedding wedding photos. Anna even bought flowers and re-created a bouquet for herself and a boutonniere for David. Pretty impressive!

  

Lisa & Nate - Wrightsville Beach Wedding Photography

Beach wedding!! I love photographing at the beach - especially when it's for an awesome couple like Lisa and Nate. Lisa's family and my family go way back, although I haven't seen them in probably over a decade. After reconnecting on Facebook, I was super excited when they hired me to photograph their wedding in Wrightsville Beach, NC. I flew down the day before the wedding, which was great because that extra day gave me the opportunity to get reacquainted and snap some awesome candids that really captured Lisa and Nate's personalities. Instead of just showing up the day of the event, I was able to be a part of all the weekend's festivities AND enjoy a little sun and sand. :)

I love this photo -  it's my desktop background right now!
 

Check out the awesome flowers at this wedding - they were all so fresh and colorful. Beautiful flowers by June did a great job, and she was so sweet to work with too!

To see a different selection of photos, visit my Flickr page.

Custom Wedding Invitations? Yes, please!

So if you've got all these beautiful engagement photos and you're not too sure what to do with them, consider letting me design your custom wedding invitations. You can have something completely unique and original for a very affordable price! I'm a big fan of incorporating photographs into all parts of your wedding, so I'm more than happy to help you make this happen. Even if you don't know where to start, talk to me and we'll work up a rough draft you can make changes to.

Prices:
5x7 size, set of 50 (includes envelopes): $125
5x7 size, set of 100 (includes envelopes): $175
5x7 size, set of 150 (includes envelopes): $220

Jamie & Jonathan - D.C. Engagement Photography

Well this is one post I've been putting off for quite a long time... didn't want to cry writing it! (Not that I'm not happy... it's just that, well, girls cry about engagements.)

Yes, even me.

On occasion.

Jamie has been one of my very best friends ever since we were two aimless freshmen thrown together for ACU's Welcome Week. We instantly bonded (was this a product of the rest of our classmates being weirdos? most likely) and have been friends throughout the nine years since. When I think about Jamie dancing around in the halls of our dorms with underwear on her head, it's hard to believe she's now all grown-up and ENGAGED!

Jonathan is Jamie's perfect compliment in pretty much every way (as far as I can tell.) I've had the opportunity to get to know him over the past couple of years, and one thing I've never doubted is how much he truly cares about her.

I feel honored to have had the opportunity to shoot their engagement photos and I'm really looking forward to being a part of their upcoming August wedding (in Maine, no less!). It's going to seem weird attending as a bridesmaid and not a photographer!

I'm Published!

So I've have a few different opportunities through Flickr (see my previous blog post) to get published random places, which is awesome, but it's always so much cooler when those places take the form of tangible materials that get sent to my mailbox. A magazine - that's what I'm trying to say. I have a half-page color photo in Msafiri, the in-flight travel magazine for Kenya Airways. Sweet! And, even better, I got paid for it.


Check out these photos of the magazine - my published photo is the one on the left. (And try not to be distracted by the much more interesting photo on the right-hand side of the page. Haha.) Anyway, the photograph is from 2006 when I went on a mission trip to Gaborone, Botswana, and took an aerial tour of the city in a small prop plane. 

Vacation Time!

If vacations are not a regular part of your life, they should be! I think taking time off of work to relax, regroup, and realign your priorities is essential to the mental health of all of us! And my mental health was definitely needing a boost. Ha. This month I was fortunate enough to be able to go with my boyfriend to the Dominican Republic on an all-inclusive vacation to a beautiful 4-star resort in Punta Cana. Looking at my packed schedule for the next 8 months of wedding season is an incentive to enjoy all the free time I have while I can!

I can't tell you how nice it was to lay out by the pool or the beach all day with absolutely nothing that I had to do. The weather was great (only one really rainy day), the people were friendly, and I loved the chance to be bored for a change!

The best news? My half of the trip cost under $900 - that included airfare, 3 meals a day, AND 6 nights of lodging. That's less than $150/day! People seem to have a misconception that vacationing is a super-expensive ordeal, but it doesn't have to be. With all the travel sites out there now like Expedia and Orbitz, travel is cheaper and more affordable than ever. In fact, our Expedia "travel agent" knocked an extra $100 off the trip price just because we called and asked about any discounts.

So, brides, before you put off that honeymoon for another year, make sure you do your homework. If you go in the off-season (usually January - March) things are usually cheaper. If you bundle it all together and book your airfare and hotel at the same time from the same place, it's gonna be cheaper. The beauty of an all-inclusive trip (in my opinion) was that I really could have gone and not spent a penny more than what I already paid. And that's hard to beat!

Here are a few photos to get you in the vacationing mood: